Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Pharmacotherapy for the treatment of drug addiction has received far too little attention, despite the clinical success of methadone, dates back to the 1960s. Over the last 30 years only two additional medications have been approved for the treatment of opiate addiction, naltrexone and levo-alpha acetylmethadol (LAAM), and it is important to note that both of those medications were developed in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Synopsis
Pharmacotherapy, as a means of treating drug addiction in combination with other treatment modalities, has received too little attention from the research community, the pharmaceutical industry, public health officials, and the federal government. Medications to combat drug addiction could have an enormous impact on the medical consequences and socioeconomic problems associated with drug abuse, both for drug-dependent individuals and for American society as a whole. This book examines the current environment for and obstacles to the development of anti-addiction medications, specifically those for treating opiate and cocaine addictions, and proposes incentives for the pharmaceutical industry that would help overcome those obstacles and accelerate the development of anti-addiction medications.